Living in the San Francisco Bay post US elections has been strange. People who live in the Bay Area will sometimes comment on the unhealthniess of living in a place where people are tolerant and politically active, as you get distanced from the reality of the rest of the world.
However, one of the interesting side effects of living in a place that is so "down home" (if you are anyone but a republican), is how the City comes together or experiences kind of a mutual PMS ala living together in close quarters.
In the past couple of days, I've felt pretty mopey... The onset of the rainy season in the bay area accentuates the mood of not just myself but of a community. Walking around SF, it seems as if everyone you encounter is not just agitated by the election, but actually seriously emotionally affected. The set of emotions have been consistent... And the topic of conversation has been basically the same for 2 days straight: the constant venting of what has happened, whether it be with strangers on the street or your coworkers or friends and family. Perhaps if nothing else, this political defeat, like a tragedy in your life, can have the silver lining of bringing us as a community closer- as we feel our ranks dwindling.
Ultimately, the repitition of endless slogans instead of dialogue on both sides has fragmented America, and perhaps for the worse. The atmosphere in the end in the "left" (although in reality a rainbow of political and cultural beleifs) center of the US is one alienation - to be unwelcome in your own country. I wonder what feeling people in the red states are having as a yang to this yin.
Party Lines suck.